Hundreds of prisoners in Ecuador will begin making coffins to help cover a shortage emerging in Guayaquil, the country’s largest city and the epicenter of one of the worst outbreaks of the new coronavirus in Latin America.
Prisoners in Ambato, a city just south of the capital Quito, will use wood seized by environmental authorities as part of anti-deforestation efforts to make the coffins, which they plan to start delivering next week to southern Guayas province, home to 68% of total cases of the virus and home to Guayaquil.
“The Environment Ministry is donating seized wood, which would have gone toward other purposes for a noble cause: Give a wooden coffin to families who have lost a loved one,” Environment Minister Juan DeHowitt said in a statement.
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